Thomson Reuters






(Adds number of workers, background on mine)


June 25 (Reuters) - Miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc
plans to temporarily idle its Pinnacle metallurgical
coal mine in West Virginia unless market conditions improve, the
company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.


Cliffs, in the midst of a proxy fight with hedge fund
Casablanca Capital which wants to replace its chief executive,
said in a separate statement that an estimated 397 employees
could be affected.


The Pinnacle mine started operating in 1969, and in 2013 it
produced 2.8 million short tons of steelmaking coal. Located
near Pineville, West Virginia, it is part of the Pinnacle
complex, along with Green Ridge No. 1, closed permanently in
2010, and Green Ridge No. 2, idled in 2012.


A weak global steel industry has hurt the price of
metallurgical coal, used to make steel. That's a particular
challenge for older coal mines, which tend to have higher costs.


Cleveland-based Cliffs has notified workers, government
agencies and the United Mine Workers of America that it could
idle the mine for more than six months starting around Aug. 25,
as required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification or WARN Act.